Renunciation (nekkhamma)
Skillful qualities / Noble Eightfold Path / Right Intention / Renunciation
Part of key topic Foundations of Dhamma Practice
Also a subtag of Perfections and Gradual Teaching
19 excerpts, 1:47:50 total duration

All excerpts (19) Most relevant (14) Questions about (10) Answers involving (4) Stories (4) Quotes (1) Readings (1)


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 15 – Apr. 28, 2001

Download audio (5:55)
1. Reflection by Paul Breiter: How do Ajahn Chah’s teachings apply to lay life? [Lay life ] [Ajahn Chah] // [Monastic life] [Culture/Thailand] [Culture/West]

When I left the monastery, I felt like a skinned cow (SN 12.63). [Similes] [Vinaya]

Story: Ajahn Chah scolds the monks for dreaming about lay life. [Work] [Family] [Commerce/economics] [Renunciation]


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 28 – Apr. 29, 2001

Download audio (8:09)
3. Story: Kittisaro’s parents visit Wat Pah Pong. Told by Kittisaro. [Kittisaro] [Parents] [Wat Pah Pong] [Ajahn Chah] // [Culture/West] [Learning] [Monastic life] [Renunciation] [Fear] [Cults] [Children] [Ordination] [Compassion]

Quote: “Wanting your parents to understand is suffering.” — Ajahn Sumedho. [Ajahn Sumedho] [Family] [Suffering]

Quote: “The Communists you really need to be concerned about, the ones who can really hurt you, are the ones who hide inside your own heart.” — Ajahn Chah. [Politics and society] [Unwholesome Roots]


Remembering Ajahn Chah Weekend, Session 34 – Apr. 29, 2001

Download audio (4:28)
8. Ajahn Chah’s time of illness was a gift to the Saṅgha. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno. [Sickness] [Generosity] [Saṅgha ] [Ajahn Chah ] // [Bodhisattva] [Renunciation] [Communal harmony] [Saṅgha decision making]

Ajahn Chah’s emphasis on Saṅgha was unique. [Thai Ajahn Chah monasteries] [Teachers] [Conflict] [Personal presence] [Three Refuges]

Quote: “People in the world are attached to status. People in the religion are attached to their views.” — Thai saying. [Monastic life] [Views]


Tudong Stories at Spirit Rock, Session 3 – Jun. 2, 2011

Download audio (2:38)
1. Story: Ajahn Chah’s first tudong. Told by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Chah] [Renunciation] [Spiritual search] [Simplicity] [Tudong]


Right Livelihood, Session 1 – Apr. 21, 2013

Download audio (2:30)
17. Comment by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo: It’s not easy giving up the things we’re used to in order to follow the path. [Renunciation] [Eightfold Path] [Clinging] [Happiness] [Right Livelihood]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Suffering] [Commerce/economics]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 39 – Mar. 2, 2015

Download audio (1:19)
3. Comment by Ajahn Karuṇadhammo: You can use objects like renunciation and lovingkindness to work towards deep meditation. [Concentration] [Renunciation] [Goodwill]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Gladdening the mind]


Abhayagiri 2015 Winter Retreat, Session 45 – Mar. 15, 2015

Download audio (0:55)
2. Examples of pleasures of renunciation? Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Karuṇadhammo. [Happiness] [Renunciation] [Rapture] // [Skillful qualities]

Sutta: Ud 2.10: “Oh, what bliss!”


On Pilgrimage and Tudong, Session 4 – Apr. 25, 2015

Download audio (4:14)
13. “After the initial impulse and intention to go tudong, once it’s going to happen, is there an upwelling of uncertainty?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Doubt] [Tudong] // [Renunciation] [Impermanence] [Clinging] [Learning] [Ajahn Chah]

Story: Chao Khun Nor stayed in his kuti and ate the same thing every day. [Chao Khun Nor] [History/Thai Buddhism]


Desire or Aspiration, Session 1 – Jun. 14, 2015

Download audio (2:42)
2. “If the Buddha had been born elsewhere, would he have turned out the same way?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Buddha/Biography] [Cultural context] // [Commentaries] [Culture/India ] [Spiritual search] [Renunciation] [Mahāyāna] [Saṃsāra]


Desire or Aspiration, Session 2 – Jun. 14, 2015

Download audio (9:39)
2. “A film came out recently called Monk with a Camera. How does one balance between pursuing one’s artistic interests and sincerely following a path of relinquishment.” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] [Renunciation] [Artistic expression ] // [Self-identity view] [Relinquishment] [Entertainment and adornment] [Generosity] [Energy] [Devotional practice]

Story: Rev. Heng Sure uses music to teach Dhamma. [Teaching Dhamma]

Story: Two Abhayagiri monks learn icon painting from the abbot of the Ukrainian Uniate monastery next door. [Abhayagiri] [Ajahn Jotipālo] [Christianity]


Teen Weekend 2017 – Sep. 2, 2017

Download audio (1:54)
5. “What was the hardest thing to give up?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Ajahn Pasanno] [Renunciation] // [Family]

Story: Ajahn Pasanno’s first visit back to Canada.


Can We Function without Attachement?, Session 4 – Oct. 1, 2017

Download audio (7:06)
3. “Can you speak about the relationship between renunciation and moderation?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Renunciation ] // [Habits] [Suffering] [Sensual desire] [Spiritual urgency] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Faith] [Conditionality] [Appropriate attention] [Perfections]


Download audio (2:59)
4. Reflection by Ajahn Pasanno: The common root of renunciation and compassion is the relationship to suffering. [Renunciation] [Compassion] [Suffering]

Reading:The Balanced Way” by Bhikkhu Bodhi on accesstoinsight.org. [Renunciation]


Download audio (1:16)
6. Comment: Renunciation sometimes requires decisively turning against established patterns. [Renunciation] [Clinging] [Determination]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno.


Download audio (4:46)
8. “How does renuciation reinforce compassion?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Jotipālo. [Renunciation ] [Compassion ] [Sloth and torpor] // [Suffering] [Clinging] [Goodwill] [Right Intention]

Sutta: Snp 1.8: The Metta Sutta.


The Teaching and the Training, Session 4 – Mar. 20, 2018

Download audio (27:35)
3. “Two questions: 1) What strengths do you see in other Buddhist traditions and Western culture that our tradition could benefit from? 2) How have you decided which aspects of korwat (protocols) from Thailand to adjust and which to maintain?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Mahāyāna] [Vajrayāna] [Culture/West] [Culture/Thailand] [Monastic life] [Vinaya] [Protocols] // [Abhayagiri] [Women in Buddhism] [Robes] [Cultural context] [City of Ten Thousand Buddhas] [Dōgen] [Zen] [Ajahn Sumedho] [History/Western Buddhism] [Simplicity] [Christianity] [Renunciation] [Eight Precepts] [Not handling money] [Chithurst] [Ajahn Amaro] [Communal harmony]

Quote: “There are so many good things to do that you could be running around the country doing good things. I’d rather focus my attention here.” [Pace of life]

Quote: “There’s no reason to fit into American culture.”

Story: The monastic jacket is vindicated in England. [Culture/Natural environment] [History/Western Buddhist monasticism]

Quote: “As Buddhist monastics and Buddhist practitioners, we’re trying to set conditions that give us the opportunity for learning.” [Lay life] [Learning]


The Teaching and the Training, Session 9 – Mar. 27, 2018

Download audio (14:28)
1. “What is the purpose of dhutaṅga practices?” Answered by Ajahn Pasanno. [Monastic life] [Ascetic practices ] // [Simplicity] [Renunciation] [Almsround] [Ajahn Pasanno] [Almsfood] [Abhayagiri] [Impermanence] [Devotion to wakefulness] [Wat Pah Pong] [Wat Pah Ban Tat] [Long-term practice]


Developing Skill in Reflective Meditation, Session 2 – Dec. 1, 2019

Download audio (3:53)
5. “Can you say more about recollection of renunciation? How can this be used skillfully or not?” Answered by Ajahn Ñāṇiko. [Recollection/Generosity] [Renunciation] [Recollection] // [Contentment] [Self-pity] [Sickness] [Equanimity] [Buddha/Biography] [Fasting] [Devotion to wakefulness] [Lunar observance days] [Abhayagiri]

Recollection: Going without in the early days of Abhayagiri Monastery. [Renunciation] [Almsfood]


Interreligious Retreat-Seminar on Dhamma and Non-duality, Session 3 – Nov. 25, 2023

Download audio (1:24)
2. Comment: When I hear “renunciation,” I have the feeling that I’m losing something. [Renunciation ]

Response by Ajahn Pasanno. [Renunciation ] [Simplicity] [Self-identity view]

Quote: “What renunciation gives is inexhaustible strength of simplicity.” — Martin Heidegger. [Renunciation ]